I Love working in Triads

I thought I’d show you an interesting triadic color combination I’m working with. One of the traditional ones you see – a kind of knock your socks off color explosion – is Red, Yellow, Blue. Usually it’s most noticeable in Fire Engine Red, Cobalt Blue, and Sunshine Yellow. Any triadic color scheme will work. Any triangle around a color circle will pop.




The house colors are a more subtle, but traditioanl color combo - Also, Red, Yellow, Blue. and isn't it magnificent on this house?

This is what one color harmony site had to say:

A Triadic color scheme has three hues from an equidistant from one another on the color wheel - such as red, yellow and blue - or orange, violet and green, blu-green, red-violet and yellow-orange.

• Like the complementary color scheme - triad harmonies can be vigorous, but they can be subdued as well.
• Example can be Red which might be translated as mahogany or blue as French grey or yellow as vanilla.
• Thus when used in subdued checked unity than the over all effect is one of well rounded balance.

This ia another Triadic Color scheme that pops up again and again in homes, beads, furniture, artwork and so on. You can also look at one of many of the Color Chart sites for color tips when you're feeling "stuck" on that next great lampwork project



Look at how well that scheme translated into this painting. Again, it's subtle but it works!

This is what I strived for in this bead set. The base color is a translucent yellow –one of those glass rods that is annoyingly not a great opaque yellow – but it does have the quality of being subdued and since it is translucent it has enough clear in it to hold the layers above in a crisp pattern. From there I had to chose the red’s and blues. If I’d of gone with the same shade of each of the colors it would have matched (you know – the bright Yellow, Blue, Red) but it may not have popped or been as appealing.

One of the things I look at when I’m perusing other peoples work is not just looking at the techniques. When it catches my eye I try and analyze why I was drawn to it. We do it with clothing, advertising, well – just about everything. The next time you find yourself wistfully looking at something that’s caught your eye think about why and translate it into your beads. It’s kind of like finding your muse.